I think Pookie's comments are asinine.
To suggest that only somebody 'better' than somebody else at something can offer worthwhile advice is the very definition of asinine, where would Usain Bolt be without Glen Mills (who never had a competitive race and withdrew from 'competition' at 13)? Does that mean the only coach of an NFL team has to have been a Superbowl winning player? How about AF settings advice from Rudy Winston or Chuck Westfall? Farcical.........
Further, to demand to see portfolio images flies in the very face of this style of forum, time and experience is offered for free, the posters pay nothing for that time and advice so to demand anything seems a strange turn around to me. Opinion are like arseholes, everybody has one and they got them for free, take the free advice at the value you paid for it, then come back in a year or so and see who gave the advice that played out with your personal situation and circumstances, there will be a few standouts.
As for 'forum 'pros'' I think their words speak volumes, but most of them, like me, have posted hundreds if not thousands of illustrative images to go to help clarify their posts. Personally I am only interested in posting helpful and relevant images that people might find interesting for any number of reasons, including the mistakes (intentional or not) that I make in them. I am not interested in posting images to massage my own ego, I find that a particularly pathetic attempt at self congratulation from the pro shooters here, this is predominantly an amateur forum and if, as a pro, you can't shoot, pose and light 'better' (an entirely subjective term) pictures than most of the non professionals on a consistent basis you are a jerk.
As for making mistakes, I am not too proud or up my own butt to admit I have made the occasional snafu or brain fart, invariably when I have and it is brought to my attention I will edit the post to reflect that and apologise, I would hate to think I was imparting incorrect knowledge, some two studio pros around here are not quite as humble. Indeed I know one who gave the most awful and incorrect piece of advice about lighting out there, "if you move a light source back it will become softer"! Despite that fundamental error being pointed out to them they didn't acknowledge the slip, I hate that kind of behaviour, totally disrespectful, factually wrong, and now a continuing source of misinformation.
Another thing I find strange but don't obsess or get bent out of shape about, pros professing to having two studios yet without their own true website, Smugmug and Flickr pages really are third string for working pros, or how about the ones that profess all the experience of a long career and show their portfolios but they date back just a year or so? Or how about idiots that suggest a fisheye lens as a suitable lens for serious consistent portrait work?